The Herald reports:

Education Minister Erica Stanford says the Government is ditching open-plan classrooms in favour of standard designs that “prioritise flexibility”.

Stanford said she had received overwhelming feedback from schools across New Zealand that open-plan classrooms were not meeting the needs of students. 

She made the announcement at Newlands Intermediate in northern Wellington, which is getting 10 new classrooms. 

“While open-plan designs were originally intended to foster collaboration, they have often created challenges for schools, particularly around noise and managing student behaviour,” Stanford said.

Modern learning environments are one of those things that sounded great in theory but turned out not to be great in practice.

The lesson fur future should be that any significant change should be tested thoroughly in the real world, before widespread implementation.

At my Patreon (paywalled) I reveal from exclusive polling data who public servants say they are voting for, and how that different from other employees.

Newsroom reports:

New Pure Tūroa Ltd chief executive Jono Dean has written to ministry officials seeking their assistance, after iwi on both the north and south sides of the mountain lodged High Court challenges to the company’s concession to operate a private business in the national park. …

Newsroom asked Dean about his letter to officials saying the court action jeopardises the company’s viability. “I think blind Freddie could figure that out,” he replies, “that a judicial review that attacks the licence process that the Crown undertook is a concern.”

The answer is not more taxpayer cash. Frankly if the local iwi want to destroy the biggest source of employment and income for their local whanau, then let them wear the consequences of that. If they want to restore Ruapehu to a mountain that people look at, rather than use – let them.

It would mean the loss of around 5,000 jobs in the Ruapehu area. 40% of the population are Māori so the iwi would actually be destroying around 2,000 jobs for their whanau. But that is a consequence of their decision to oppose the concessions.

Stats NZ reports:

Aotearoa New Zealand’s consumers price index (CPI) increased 2.7 percent in the 12 months to the June 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. …

The largest upwards contributor to the annual inflation rate was local authority rates and payments, up 12.2 percent. Rates contributed 13 percent of the 2.7 percent annual increase.

2.7% is getting a bit too close to the 3% limit the Reserve Bank should target, but what I always focus on is whether it is non-tradeable or domestic inflation or tradeable.

Tradeable inflation has gone up. It is 1.2%, compared to 0.3% a year ago.

Non-tradeable inflation is 3.7%. Still too high but this is a four year low. A year ago it was 5.4%.

In late 2021 the Herald ran an article quoting Fale Andrew Lesā about MIQ space. He was described as a diplomat.

I had someone e-mail me pointing out that he was not a diplomat. So I ran this blog post on how he isn’t a diplomat. Andrew responded to me by e-mail and said he was invited as an individual in relation to his experience in public policy and governance, and he made this clear to the Herald.

I added a statement from him to the story, despite being unsure this was the case. The Herald journalist had said in an e-mail to my reader “Andrew has the most extraordinary CV which such a variety of roles that I wasn’t sure how to describe him. So I asked him and he said he always described himself as a diplomat. I must admit I thought it a little odd.” 

In April 2023, Andrew asked me to remove the blog post as it was coming up prominently in Google, and he argued he was a diplomat on the basis of his work for the Asian Development Bank, and that he had never mentioned MFAT. I agreed to do so, because I don’t believe in never ending consequences for what might be a one off mistake, so it was set to be hidden until today.

This morning Stuff has a story which reveals he has been appointed a Visiting Justice for Prisons. They also find his CV somewhat embellished or as he cals it aspirational:

• Said he had a JD from Yale, but in fact he did a free online course on governance that is on the Internet
• Said he is a director of ACC, but he is merely a member of their Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council
• Said he was a policy consultant for the Asian Development Bank on the basis an e-mail asking for  input into a policy dialogue session for the ADB’s Asia Pacific Youth Symposium which he had previously attended
• Said he was a UN Diplomat on the basis he took part in some UNESCO youth forums (Incidentally I was once a member of the UN Secretary General’s Working Group on Youth Unemployment, so I guess that would have made me a very senior diplomat!)
• Said he was a senior advisor to Philanthropy NZ, but was just a member of their youth advisory group

Andrew is so good at embellishing his CV, he should apply to be a Green Party MP!

UPDATE: He says he resigning from all his roles.

The Herald reports:

An influential collection of business and consumer organisations are calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to fix the “broken” energy sector.

In a letter published in today’s Sunday newspapers titled “Our energy market is broken”, Luxon was told the country was running out of gas, new electricity generation is taking an age, soaring prices are forcing businesses to close and families are struggling to heat their homes over winter.

Among the organisations to sign the letter were the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, whose chief executive, Simon Bridges, is a former National Party leader; the Employers and Manufacturers Association, the Northern Infrastructure Forum, Consumer NZ and four independent power retailers.

Under the headline, “Our energy market is broken”, the organisations appealed for urgent reform of the energy sector, which they said has failed to serve New Zealanders, businesses and the country’s infrastructure needs.

They are correct. We have a shortage of energy supply, and this is going to send power prices soaring. At the moment it is mainly businesses paying the extra costs, but it will inevitably hit residential prices soon, and it will hurt.

New Zealand has gone from a country with internationally competitive pricing that attracted businesses to pricing that is closing businesses down, McDonald said.

There are no quick fixes, but the country needs to get on with gas exploration or some kind of thermal option to back what’s happening with things such as solar and wind, he said.

The fast track law should allow more solar and wind generation to be consented. But we also need gas and thermal energy. Ideally more hydro also.

The Herald reports:

More than half of the $257 million loan book held by the Government entity formerly known as the Provincial Growth Fund is considered to be at risk of impairment or default.

The surge in at-risk loan advances made by Crown Regional Holdings (CRH) – a vehicle used by the Government to warehouse policies intended to promote provincial growth or regional infrastructure – were laid bare in its long-delayed annual report tabled to Parliament late last week.

The report, to June 2024, shows the proportion of loans advanced that were considered to be at a “significant increase in risk” of impairment or default reached 54% of the total book at balance date – up from 40% a year earlier. 

This is a great example of why taxpayers shouldn’t do corporate welfare loans. Taxpayers are now at risk of losing over $100 million, which could have been spent on health or education. Banks, not Governments, should do loans.

The Herald reports:

Commerce Commission chairman John Small has defended social media posts in which he called for consumers to reconsider using Uber and instead recommended rival rideshare services.

The commission regulates competition and fair trading laws in New Zealand and ensures businesses comply with the Commerce Act, which prohibits anti-competitive behaviour.

Small caused a stir on LinkedIn this week when he took to the platform to post “If you’re using Uber in NZ, please reconsider”.

Small’s post continued: “Bolt and DiDi work in exactly the same way as Uber. They are app-based ride-hailing services, set up to compete against Uber. They’ve been able to enter the market because drivers can “multi-home” by running several ride-hailing apps at once. 

“The guy who took us across town today on Bolt runs all three apps, so he can be booked through any of these channels. I gather that most ride-hailing drivers are multi-homing across all these three apps.

Many weighed in with their opinions on Uber’s service, but a few also questioned whether Small should be dissuading people from using Uber and encouraging them to try its rivals.

“Strange that an independent chairman would punt one business over another,” commented Warren Van Rooyen, a general counsel currently working as Foodstuffs North Island’s regulatory compliance lead, who later told the Herald he was posting in a personal capacity.

“Exactly my initial reaction,” replied University of Otago emeritus Law Professor Rex Ahdar.

I think the substance of the post was fine. Informing people of how the market works, and how you can support competition is not inappropriate for the Commerce Commission Chair.

However his exact wording was unwise. He said:

If you’re using Uber in NZ, please reconsider.

That goes from sharing information, to advocacy against a particular company. As a regulator chair, you can’t be seen to be advocating against a particular company.

If he has said “If you’re a rideshare user, you may want to look at these less known options as they are likely to have access to just as many drivers, but charge lower fees to their drivers” then that would be fine.

So the intent was good, but the exact wording was not appropriate, in my opinion.

This is the latest example:

Charter schools told to keep enrolment numbers secret

“The seven charter schools set up at the start of the year have been told to keep their enrolments secret, by The Charter School Agency.

The organisation, which manages charter school contracts and funding, told RNZ it was not appropriate to share information about the rolls of the publicly funded private schools.

“The Charter School Agency does not intend to release the numbers of students currently enrolled at each individual school during the crucial establishment phase as this could undermine their commercial position and their efforts to build their roll and deliver quality education,” it said.”

Very well done to Tipene and the French International School for having the integrity to ignore the CSA.

If you believe in a policy, use taxpayers money, and consider that you are doing a good/worthwhile job – you talk about it. The CSA is subject to the OIA.

Alwyn Poole
[email protected]

Radio NZ reports:

Child exploitation and bestiality material were allegedly found on former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming’s work devices, it can now be revealed.

The revelation comes after a High Court judge dismissed an application to prevent media reporting the nature of the alleged objectionable material.

In a criminal law sense, we must suspend judgement until the allegations have been tested and proven in court. McSkimming is entitled to a presumption of innocence when it comes to criminal liability.

In a political sense, we can reflect on the fact that he was personally chosen by Chris Hipkins to be Deputy Police Commissioner, and was highly likely to have been appointed Commissioner had they been re-elected.

On my Patreon, I have done the June 2025 summary of polling and re-election fundamentals for Australia, Canada, NZ, UK and the US.

Bomber Bradbury wrote on 17 July:

The Free Speech Fake Union is a zionist astroturf organisation backed by Atlas Network that has weaponised free speech for the Right. …

If The Free Speech Fake Union gain control of Internet NZ, it’s just a matter of time before they start demanding anti-semitism is purged from the NZ internet.

I find it interesting that some people can’t cope with the possibility of an organisation taking a principled stand on issues, regardless of personal views of members.

Far from the FSU demanding censorship of anti-semitic material on the Internet, just three days earlier the FSU said exactly the opposite:

In response to the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism in Universities that recently recommended limiting particular speech, the New Zealand Jewish Council has called for similar action by the New Zealand Government. But threatening to silence speech, as odious as some may find it, would set a dangerous precedent and be a terrible own goal for the Jewish community, says Dane Giraud, Council member of the Free Speech Union. 

So three days after the FSU explicitly and loudly said there shouldn’t be censorship of anti-semitic speech, Bomber claims their stance is the exact opposite.

And incidentally the Jewish Council has said the FSU has misunderstood what they said, and in fact they don’t support a change on censorship laws.

The fact that FSU and the Jewish Council are having a little flare up over who said what, makes Bomber’s claim that the FSU is a Zionist organisation even more laughable and ill-timed.

A fascinating column by the COO of Sudima Hotels, which provided four MIQ facilities. He reveals:

1. The pandemic plan already agreed to by hotel owners, Auckland Council and the DHBs was never followed
2. A local authority, the military and the police all claimed authority over the same facilities
3. A Minister publicly announced one of their hotels was being turned into an MIQ facility – and they only found out through the media!
4. There was no clear protection for MIQ operators from imposed health and safety liabilities, such as exposing their staff to Covid-19

Incredible that a Minister could announce a hotel had been commandeered and would open that day, without even having informed the hotel owner in advance!

I’m a little late to this because I don’t monitor the UK media daily but on the 17^th of March 2025, a final chapter in a crucial battle of military history came to an end with the death of 105-year-old Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway of the Royal Air Force who flew Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain. Originally from Dublin, Ireland he joined the RAF in March 1938 and saw constant action during the Battle of France, the Battle of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain where he was shot down three times and in 1941 was award the Distinguished Flying Cross. He served as an air traffic controller during the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France and served out the remainder of the war in Italy where he was shot down a fourth time! He remained in service with the RAF rising through the ranks to Group Captain when he retired in 1969.

The term “The Few” quickly became an appellation of endearment given to the 2,927 fighter pilots of the RAF (and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy) who fought and successfully defended Great Britain from the onslaught of the German Luftwaffe in the summer and autumn of 1940. It was an endearment endowed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his speech on August 20, 1940, to the House of Commons given at the height of the Battle of Britain where, praising the brave and heroic efforts of the fighter pilots said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. From thence on the term “The Few” came to represent all the pilots Churchill referred to and it has stuck ever since.

Whilst 80% of The Few were British, the RAF’s pilot ranks during the Battle of Britain were joined by pilots from the conquered nations of Europe: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Czechoslovakia as well as Britain’s former colonies: Canada, Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia and 135 pilots from New Zealand including the most prominent, Air Vice Marshall Keith Park from Auckland who was the head of 11 Group, the geographical division of RAF Fighter Command that covered the vital airfields in the counties south of London which bore the brunt of the fighting during the Battle of Britain.

Whilst the RAF was ultimately victorious in the Battle, it was in fact a close-run thing with the outcome of the battle closely contested for two months as the Luftwaffe mercilessly bombed the airfields of the south of England for 59 consecutive days. Whilst the installation of radar and the sophisticated defense network of regional plotting rooms used radar’s findings to guide the defenders to the incoming German bombers and fighters with near pinpoint accuracy, nonetheless the toll of lost Spitfires and Hurricanes and pilots from the airfield bombings was outstripping the ability of the British to build new fighter planes and train new pilots. Had the Germans persisted with this tactic, they may well have won the battle. The iconic 1969 movie “The Battle of Britain” accurately details this knife edge situation and of the circumstances surrounding how the battle fortuitously shifted to the Blitz of London after a Heinkel bomber crew, lost over the docks of London, dropped unused bombs on the city prompting Churchill to order a retaliatory raid undertaken by 95 small Wellington bombers (then the RAF’s largest bomber) on Berlin. Whilst the ordinance dropped on Berlin was light and the damage to Nazi Party HQ and the Reichstag was minimal, Hitler was so incensed that he ordered the Luftwaffe to switch its huge air raids from the RAF fighter squadrons to the city of London, specifically the docks and the East End. Whilst 25,000 civilians were to die in the Blitz and vast swaths of the city were leveled to rubble, the Blitz not only failed to break the resolve of the British people but the indefatigable head of Fighter Command (Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding) was able to use the respite from the bombing of his airfields to rebuild his shattered fleet of fighters and train more pilots and through the late summer and autumn of 1940, gradually the RAF clawed back supremacy of the skies over England resulting in the Luftwaffe sustaining crippling losses such that Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion (the plan to invade England) and began to shift his sights to the planning of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. This tactical blunder cost Hitler the Battle of Britain and an undefeated UK was able to anchor the eventual Allied fight back and then invasion of Europe in 1944.

Victory in the Battle of Britain was a crucial chapter of the Second World War as it ensured Britain was not invaded. The seeming miraculous nature of the deliverance and Churchill’s shepherding of Britain on to victory with the US and the Soviets means The Battle of Britain and “the Few” hold an inestimable special place in the hearts of the British to this day.

John Allman Hemingway 19 July 1919 to 17 March 2025 – RIP

Te Pati Maori in a burp of disinformation declared Eric Crampton as the policy mind between the Foreshore & Seabed law and Marine and Coastal Area law. Of course once again the media largely ignore the fact they just tell blatant lies.

Three inconvenient facts:

1. Eric, then a university economics lecturer, had nothing to do with either law
2. An MP who did advocate for and voted for the Foreshore & Seabed law was John Tamihere – the now President of TPM
3. The Marine and Coastal Areas law (replacing the FS law) was negotiated with Te Pati Maori, whom all voted for it

The Herald reports:

Te Pāti Māori has again failed to file its audited financial statements on time, despite being formally warned by police last year. 

It’s also yet to provide the Electoral Commission with an audit report for last year’s financial statement.

Of course they have. They don’t think the law applies to them, and why should they when the Police fail to take action time after time.

“Te Pāti Māori has not yet filed financial statements or an audit report but has told the Commission they are being prepared and will be filed soon,” said Temel.

This is not rocket science. You have six months from your year end to prepare and file the accounts. They could easily do it in time, should they choose to. But they choose not to.

Erica Stanford released the following:

• 57 per cent of students achieved the NCEA numeracy standard across all year levels – up from 45 per cent in May 2024.
• 61 per cent of students achieved the NCEA literacy standard across all year levels – up from 58 per cent in May 2024.
• 55 per cent of students achieved the NCEA writing standard across all year levels – holding steady from May last year.

Some useful progress. I’,m still angry at those principals who demanded we remove any literacy and numeracy requirements from NCEA, on the grounds it was unfair to those who were illiterate or innumerate!